War Tax Resister Russell Kanning Jailed for IRS Office Leafletting

Russell Kanning is in jail, awaiting sentencing after being convicted of
refusing to obey officials who were preventing him from leafletting at the
IRS
office in Keene, New Hampshire. (See The Picket Line28 July,
31 July, and
2 August for background.)

The latest news is that he has been moved to a maximum security section of the
jail after refusing to cooperate with his imprisonment (he refused some
requests for information, and, initially, would go limp and force prison
guards to move him rather than moving voluntarily).

Supporters have since rallied both at the
IRS
office where Kanning was arrested, and at the Strafford County House of
Corrections where he is being held.

Supporters of jailed war tax resister Russell Kanning protest near the
IRS
office in Keene, New Hampshire.

When the
IRS
announced that it was finally giving up on trying to illegally collect an
excise tax on flat-rate long distance telephone service, it said that it would
be refunding several years’ worth of improperly-collected taxes, with
interest, and that individual taxpayers could apply for these refunds using
their 1040 forms in 2007.

What about people who don’t file a yearly tax form (millions of poor and
retired people do not need to file) — how do they get their refunds?

“We recognize there are many people who have no filing requirements and we
want to make sure that these people get the refund they deserve,” the
IRS
said in a statement.

There’s a new issue of
NWTRCC’s
More Than a Paycheck out. Included in this issue
are addresses
where you can write letters of support to imprisoned war tax resisters Joseph
Donato and Kevin McKee, and
a profile of
war tax resister Stanley Bohn.

Also out now is the War Resisters League’s new newsletter — WIN,
which replaces the Nonviolent Activist. Of special
interest to the
NWTRCC
crew will be its lead article this issue on
“Building
an Intergenerational Movement” — something that’s also been at the front
of the
NWTRCC agenda lately.

There’s a new section on the
Mennonite Central Committee web site devoted to war tax resistance.

Find Out More!

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